Civic polls' result to have impact on Assembly elections: TC

Trinamool Congress on Sunday said that results of today's civic elections in West Bengal would have an impact on next year's Assembly polls in the state and thanked people for turning out in large numbers despite "provocations".

"We keep our faith in the people who have turned out in large numbers statewide to cast their votes in the municipal polls despite provocations," Trinamool leader Mukul Roy told reporters at the end of voting.

Asked for comments on the party's expectations about results and if it would demand advancement of the Assembly elections if it fared well in these polls, he said, "This is not the right time to say anything in this regard."

He accused the CPI(M) of indulging in booth-capturing in five of the 14 wards falling in the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's Jadavpur Assembly constituency and demanded repolling in two of them in the crucial election to the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation held on Sunday.

Roy, the Union Minister of Shipping, alleged that outsiders were brought to those wards to capture booths and obstruct the voters to exercise their franchise in ward number 101,102,103,110 and 114.

"One of our party candidates in one such civic ward in the chief minister's constituency was manhandled, while two of our partymen were injured," he alleged.

"We have asked the Election Commission to hold repolling in ward 110 and 114," he said.

Roy said there was also a unprecedented number of defective EVM machines in several wards of different municipalities across West Bengal which went to polls.

"We have lodged complaint to the state Election Commission on the faulty EVM machines," he said.

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